


Dumpster Swan Dive

by hamjay



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Brotherly Bonding, Feel-good, Gen, Injury, Mild Angst, Mild Language, Missions Gone Wrong, Protective Siblings, cass is only mentioned, minor injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:14:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26188564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hamjay/pseuds/hamjay
Summary: A case goes slightly awryThe target gets awayBut it doesn't matter becauseYou can always depend on your brother
Relationships: Jason Todd & Damian Wayne
Comments: 7
Kudos: 80





	Dumpster Swan Dive

**Author's Note:**

> Damian is like 15 here  
> Jason has an emotional support dog named Connie

The explosion knocked Red Hood backwards and he went stumbling across the roof. A bullet nailed him square in the chest armor, further destabilizing him. Jason wheeled his arms, desperately trying to right himself. Then- his heel struck the roof ledge and Jason pitched backwards and over the side.

Jason's body twisted like a large cat in midair, depending completely on instinct and sense of space to right himself for a hard landing. Three stories high. Too late to use his grapple- if only he'd pulled it out as he was  _ stumbling _ . In his mind he knew it was survivable, but it was going to  _ suck- _

A jerk and suddenly Jason wasn't falling anymore. He looked up and saw his little brother who had been on the roof with him. Damian was dangling from the roof ledge by one green gloved hand, and gripped the shoulder of Red Hood’s jacket in the other. Robin's face was twisted with strain, teeth grit, but Jason was impressed that he'd been caught at all! The momentum of his fall alone must have torn at Robin's shoulders. However, they couldn't hang like this forever and Damian was not strong enough to haul Jason’s whole 200 pound ass up to the ledge.

"Robin-..." Jason reached up and grabbed onto Damian's upper arm with one hand so the teen didn’t have to keep gripping his jacket. He could feel, beneath the armor, Damian was weakening quickly. They had only moments left until Damian's grip on the roof ledge failed completely. So Jason looked around for escape routes. There was no nearby ledge, no window, no hold for him to pass on to. Meanwhile, Robin stared down at him, dread creeping in as the seconds compounded upon their precarious position.

"Hood." Damian felt his fingers slipping from the edge. " _ Todd _ ." Jason spotted a full dumpster below them in the alley, their best bet and only option for a soft landing, better than splattering on the pavement. " _ Jas… _ !" His fingers slipped off the cement ledge. Gravity won. 

Jason kept the iron grip on Damian’s arm. His leg kicked out and pushed them off the brick wall to secure a trajectory that would deposit them in the dumpster, bringing Robin with him. Then there were several crucial seconds of free fall and Jason used them the best he could to protect Damian. Every instinct in his body was  _ screaming _ for Jason to twist around and look at the ground so he could manage the safest landing possible and preserve  _ himself _ from injury. He fought all of it and kept looking up at Robin, flung his arms and legs out like a starfish, and  _ prayed _ it would be enough to cushion the fall for his brother. Maybe Damian would have been okay, but Jason  _ refused _ to do nothing, if it meant preventing even a single scratch on the teenager.

Damian seemed to float above him, weightless, as they fell at the same speed. The inner yellow of Robin’s cape fluttered behind him almost like slow motion. Unlike Jason, Damian didn’t resist the instinct to protect himself, so he tucked in, positioned to land directly on the softest center of Red Hood’s mass, calculating the best chances of success. He’d watched Jason unfold and spread himself out to protect him and didn’t hesitate to accept his plan. Then the seconds slipped away and they abruptly stopped falling.

A loud  _ bang _ echoed out of the alley when they dropped into the dumpster accompanied by an equally loud  _ scrunch _ as all the trash inside compacted beneath them. The air was completely knocked out of Jason from, first, landing squarely on his back from a three story drop, and second, by Robin landing squarely on his torso. He must have blacked out for a few moments, then he started thrashing. 

Robin rolled away and onto Jason’s legs, blessedly relieving the pressure on his chest. Red Hood lurched into an upright sitting position and wrenched off his helmet to gape at the air like a drowning fish. Damian yelped “Hey!” when Jason shoved him away.

“My- leg-!” Jason gasped. His leg, which hadn’t  _ quite _ made it into the dumpster with the rest of his body, had instead slammed against the metal edge, and Robin was sitting right on top of it. The breaths were coming easier now and Jason clutched his lower leg, at a loss for words because  _ fuck _ did that hurt!

Realizing what the problem was, Robin scrambled over a trash bag in order to give Jason more room. He seemed unhurt, if only stunned, and it was such a  _ relief _ that Jason couldn’t care less that he’d hurt his own leg. If Jason hadn’t thrown himself on the proverbial chopping block for Damian then that easily could have been his brother's skull on the metal edge instead of Jason’s leg. “Is it broken?” Damian asked, hands hovering. “Did you break your leg?”

The pain didn’t ease but Jason did manage to make his mouth work. “Fuckn’  _ hurts _ mother- shit _ fuck _ . Not broke. Don’t think it's... Fracture?” Maybe a fracture, but the limb wasn’t snapped thank  _ god _ . Red Hood started to wrangle in his pain reaction by taking up a meditative breathing pattern they’d all been trained in. Robin’s hands finally touched him, brushed over Jason’s shoulders and arms before deciding he had no other injuries, then he brushed himself in a similar way. “You good?” Jason asked in a stronger voice now that he was curbing a very  _ strong _ impulse to blow the entire dumpster to a million pieces for turning his calf into the equivalent of a screaming black hole of  _ pain _ . Damian nodded and started to climb up out of the trash. He sat on the side of the dumpster. Nothing mattered, just knowing Robin was okay, Jason couldn’t care less about the fall, the explosion, their blundered mission. Nothing but his brother.

A green gloved hand reached down to him and when Red Hood grabbed it they gripped each other strongly by the wrists. “You’re  _ heavy _ -” Robin grunted as he hauled Jason up out of the trash and over the side. “You nearly tore my shoulder out when I caught you. You’re  _ welcome _ by the way.”

“You’re not exactly a fairy sprite anymore, buddy,” he snapped back, only because his leg  _ hurt _ when he had to use it to pry himself from the garbage. “So you can  _ zip it _ about  _ my _ weight when I just took your heavy ass straight to the chest, okay? Who said you could have another growth spurt anyway, huh?” Once over the side of the dumpster and onto the pavement, Red Hood didn’t dare put weight on his right side. Down the block the fire from the explosion was throwing a yellow glow on the streets and building faces, and sirens were closing in on the neighborhood.

Robin didn’t make any rebuttal about Jason’s comments. Damian  _ had _ been growing, but Jason also had a right to complain when he’d just sacrificed his body to protect Damian’s. The fight wasn’t really in it for the kid, anyway. “The target is likely long gone.” Robin tucked himself into Red Hood’s side with an arm behind his back so that the big guy could lean on him while they limped out of the alley, both feeling distinctly peeved after swan diving into a Gotham city dumpster. 

“Well...we gotta check those buildings for civilians,” Red Hood said when they reached the mouth of the alley and paused there, looking at the blaze down the street. “I’m down for the count with this leg, but you can get a head start on the fire department.” Jason ruffled Damian’s hair before the kid took off jogging down the street. Despite the injured leg, all Jason could feel was relief that his little brother hadn’t been banged up on the fall, relieved he’d been there to catch him. 

And hadn’t Damian also been there to catch  _ him _ ? “Huh,” Jason sighed to himself in thought. Damian really was getting bigger, stronger, considering he’d snatched Jason out of the air like he had. Either way, that little stunt on the roof edge had given them enough time to plan a safe landing and Jason was still pretty proud of that dumpster stunt. “Nothin’ but net.”

Jason limped along to stand by the blazing building, guiding frightened civilians to safety and checking for injuries. When the fire trucks showed up Robin reappeared looking dusty but unharmed. No need to stick around now that the professionals had arrived.

"We left your helmet in the trash," Robin suddenly remembered. 

"Not like I don't have more." 

But Robin jogged off toward the alley they had fallen in. A few minutes later Damian came rolling up on Jason's red motorcycle that was stashed nearby. Jason smirked, Robin was still too short for it, for all the growth spurts he'd been having. Robin had to lean the bike dangerously to the side just to get one boot toe on the pavement. "Gonna give me a ride home?" he asked, hopping on one foot over to the humming bike. Jason slung his bad leg over the bike to sit behind Damian and helped to hold it upright with his other strong leg. When the bike stood straight Jason couldn't help laughing at how Robin's boots couldn't even touch the ground toes skimming a solid two inches from the pavement though Jason’s boot was planted firmly and flat.

"Quit laughing or you can walk home," Robin griped. The throttle twisted, and Jason lifted his foot off the ground as they got rolling. He held onto Damian’s side with one hand. 

"Just never noticed, since you always sit behind me." Robin went easy on the bike, not his usual speedy self. Jason could tell he was hesitant while handling it around corners and at low speeds as they drove to Jason's place. It was very clear to Jason that he'd made the motorcycle to suit himself best, and might not be easy for Damian to use. But they got there without a problem. 

Jason fingered a button on his belt when they arrived home and the garage door lifted up. The headlights shone on the back wall as they rolled in and the door closed behind them. Jason put his good foot down to support the bike once Damian turned it off. Damian put the kickstand down and climbed off. 

"Are you sure you wouldn't like to come to the cave and have your leg treated?" he asked. Robin didn't protest when Jason balanced himself with a hand on his shoulder so he could get off the bike and climb the stairs together into the apartment. 

"Nah." When they opened the door at the top landing they were greeted by a very interested German Shepard. She sniffed all around their legs. Jason could only offer his dog, Connie, a pat on the head for the moment. "I'll go see doc Thompkins in the morning. Help me to the couch." 

Robin brought him over. "Then I will stay with you and take you there tomorrow."

A scoff left Jason and then a groan as he bent over and started to work his boots off. It was dark in the apartment but easy to see by the light through the windows. "I can call a ride, Damian. Why don't you go home, bud?" But when Jason looked up he saw Robin had already pulled off his gloves and was tugging off his mask. 

"I'm staying to make sure you actually go see Doctor Thompkins and have your leg x-rayed," Damian insisted and that seemed like the end of it. So Jason shrugged, it wasn't as if he didn't like Damian's company anyway. 

So they removed the bulkier pieces of their armor and piled them aside. "Go jump in the shower," Jason told him. "You smell like trash."

"I wonder why," Damian said, rolling his eyes, and walking toward the bathroom.

"Almost like we went dumpster diving or something. Weird eh? Hey, grab some clothes before you go."

When Damian finished in the shower Jason traded with him, limping around the apartment the whole way. Jason had to sit down on the toilet cover to get his clothes off. He rolled down his utility pants, wiggled out of his leggings, and finally got a look at his calf. "Oof…" Jason hissed when he saw the bruise that slashed across the back of his calf. All the skin was red but the slash in particular was already so dark and purple that it looked black. With shaking fingers he brushed the skin, biting his lip at the searing pain. 

Well there was nothing else to do but shower and take some painkillers. And Damian staying over. He wondered what compelled his brother to stay and look after him. Sure, they got along well, but Jason hated to think the kid was  _ worried _ about him. It was more like Jason would prefer the kid took a load off and cared for himself first for once. But, Jason figured, if they were working as a team, you should look after your team. Look after your brother, just like he’d done for Damian.

After showering, Jason was dressing and wondered briefly if Damian might be hungry. So when he'd limped out to the living room and saw some of the lights turned on, he leaned over the back of the couch. "Want something to eat?"

Damian, who was laying there in a pair of Jason's sweats and a shirt, rested his phone on his chest. "Not particularly." Connie was resting her head on the teens stomach, like she did whenever Jason relaxed on the couch. Damian was idly stroking between her pointy ears. 

"You want, like, some toast? I made a sourdough loaf yesterday. I'm making some for me anyway. And tea. So I don’t mind." But when Jason said that Damian sat up.

"You should be getting off that leg, Todd. I'll fix the tea myself," he insisted and Jason honestly couldn't complain. So he traded places with Damian and gratefully rested his leg up on the coffee table to get the injury raised. Connie happily turned to Jason for attention now that Damian was gone. The dog was used to him coming and going at all odd hours and wasn't bothered that it was 2am. 

"You're a good girl, you know that? Yeah, you are. You're my favorite girl. You happy to see Dami? Was he giving you attention?" Despite the pain of his leg, petting his dog made Jason feel  _ so _ much better. 

Damian smiled to himself from the kitchen as he heard Jason talking to the brown and black dog. There was indeed a loaf of bread on the counter, covered by a cloth to keep it from drying out. Damian already knew it was going to taste good, he'd had Jason's bread before, so he sliced them two pieces each and popped them in the toaster. He filled the kettle and put it on the stove in the meantime. "Todd, what kind of tea do you want? Do you want anything on your toast?"

"There's a tin of mint in the cupboard. And, um...some jam in the fridge, please," Jason called over. So while Damian handled that Jason grabbed his laptop off the coffee table and started doing a little research. 

They'd lost their target, so it was on to plan B. Or rather, plan C because they had just blundered their plan B when they were caught off guard by the explosion. Damian joined him and they snacked while discussing the next best course of action. 

Jason liked working with Damian on casework. It really felt like a collaboration when they tackled something together. They met each other where they were, and rarely ever struggled for any kind of power. Todd wasn't Grayson, who had always been Damian's mentor. And Damian wasn't Tim, who Jason liked, but who often bulldozed through casework with a single mindedness that exhausted Jason. Damian and Jason moved at a similar pace, always forward and always engaged, but without Bruce's obsessive tendency and with a healthy dose of self preservation that seemed absent in others. After all, if they weren't on their top game, how could they perform perfectly in the field? And as long as a mistake wasn’t completely bone headed, they were forgiving with each other.

So they sat comfortably on the couch with Connie between them, talking it over and over until progress got too slow and they got tired. Jason called it for the night (morning) and turned on the television to something mindless. Damian made more tea for them both. 

When Damian sat down again he asked “how’s your leg?” 

Jason pulled up his pant leg to show off the nasty bruise. He heard Damian’s hiss of sympathy. “Yeah...I dunno. At best I gotta stay off it for a couple days. So let’s figure out how you can nab this guy solo, okay? I don’t like sending you alone but…” 

“But we can’t let him make another mess like tonight,” Damian finished for him. “I dislike having to call in someone else on  _ our _ case, but perhaps Cain would be willing to assist us.”

That made Jason feel so much better. Especially after their mishap tonight, he wasn’t looking forward to abandoning his brother in the field. “Cass’ll be perfect,” he agreed. “Sorry, I know you asked  _ me _ to help with this maniac. Feel bad calling someone else in.” Jason really  _ liked _ working with Damian.

But the teen was fixing him with a  _ look _ . “Why are you apologizing? You got that injury while protecting me in the field. I should be the one apologizing.” He  _ wasn’t _ apologizing, not yet. But even the hint of one was a rare privilege Jason enjoyed from Damian that others might not be afforded.

“Don’t forget, you snatched me out of midair.” Jason let his pant leg down and bumped their shoulders. “That was fucking cool, I was sure I was going to be scrambled eggs in that alley and then-” Jason made a snatching motion with his hand. “You had me!” Damian was smiling behind his mug of tea. “And- did you get that slow motion feeling when we were falling, too?”

“Yes. I saw you spreading out and I remember distinctly thinking to myself ‘Todd, you idiot’,” Damian griped. Jason tossed his head back, laughing. “I thought ‘he’s really going to catch me, isn’t he?’ And ‘well, if that’s what he wants, I’ll land right on his gut.’” Jason held his stomach as he kept laughing. 

“Yeah, you really laid your pointy elbows into it,” he said, rubbing his eyes and sighing as the laughter petered off. “I’ll think twice before making myself your personal crash pad next time, okay?”

Damian rolled his eyes. “Thank you.” 

Jason nodded, smiling, knowing Damian meant ‘thanks for catching me, for putting yourself on the line, even if I was going to be  _ okay _ ’. He brought up a hand and squeezed his brother’s shoulder. “Any time.  _ Every _ time,” Jason promised. 

With that Jason picked up his fresh mug of tea and they settled in to watch the tail end of a cartoon rerun. Once it was over they turned off the TV and Jason pried himself off the couch. “Night, buddy.” Connie followed behind as Jason wobbled to his bedroom to get some sleep, her claws clicking across the wood floor with every step. Damian shut off the lights and laid back on the couch to do the same. 

They slept past sunrise and cooked up hashbrowns and veggie sausages for breakfast. Then Damian, who’d driven himself to Jason’s place the day before, took him to Leslie’s clinic for an x-ray. Miraculously, his leg wasn’t fractured. But the bruising was very deep and Jason was told to expect some diligent physical therapy before he’d be back to normal in a month. Damian gave him a ride home and they agreed on plans to include Black Bat in their case. It wasn’t what they’d hoped for, since they liked getting time to work together, just the two of them. But it was a small price to pay, considering Cass was accommodating them.

So Jason ran the comms for them over the next week and when they captured their target and passed him off to the authorities, the three celebrated with dinner at Jason’s place.

**Author's Note:**

> Connie is short for 'Reconnaissance'  
> I am physically unable to write about Jason without mentioning his motorcycle  
> YES Jason bakes bread, because Alfred probably taught him how okay??


End file.
